Pols241 week 12 lec3 nov.docx

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School

Queen's University

Department

Political Studies

Course

POLS 241

Professor

Dru Lauzon

Semester

Fall

Description

Pols241 week 12 lec3 nov.28
 Ethnicity and Tribalism in Africa
o Brings up question of nationalism
 Ernst gellners definition
 Book makes the case that at first glance Africa looks divided between different
groups (ethic, linguistic etc) which prevent democracy, because they all have
different interests= preventing compromise which is what democracy is all
about.
 As such, if different interests are an obstacle we should therefore have no
democracy period in Africa, Germany, Switzerland etc
 Either it is or it isn’t a strict obstacle
 If we look outside of Africa at different tribal countries like Canada ( English and
French) democracy still seems to flourish.
 Stepan: hyper-nationalism can lead to conflict that will break down
democratic institutions. However it can also serve as a source of
opposition, mobilization.
 Reconciling different identities
 Not through winner take all system
 In Germany and in Canada federalism was used.
 Constitutional methods
o Ensure that everyone is at least partially a winner= bridging
identity gap.
 Consociational methods
o Botswana, Switzerland
o Rules of consensus (decision made by some that excludes
others is a bad thing)
o Based on voice, participation and consensus
o Therefore, once federalism and consociationalism is established
 Moving away from liberal democracy
 Thus, maybe less adversarial models can reconcile
identity differences
o Can use non-democratic means like federalism
(compartmentalizes votes and voices-ie. Can vote in Quebec but
not in Ontario, limits rights to create partial winners in the
system.)
o Thus, pragmatic humans have adopted different forms of
democracy in response to different circumstances.
 Education
o Book assumes that there won’t be a strong democracy in Africa until everyone is
educated  In Canada people don’t know cabinet ministers, have problems with civic
education, some are illiterate
 Even in the best democracies in the world not everyone is educated